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In lines where direct returns are impossible, we compare one town with another. Scores
of methods may be compared in this way, measured by cost of sales.
But the most common way is by the use of the coupon. We offer a sample, a book, a free
package, or something to induce direct replies. Thus we learn the amount of action which
each ad engenders.
But those figures are not final. One ad may bring to many worthless replies, another
replies that are valuable. So our final conclusions are always based on cost per customer
or cost per dollar of sale.
These coupon plans are dealt with further in the chapter on "Test Campaigns." Here we
explain only how we employ them to discover advertising principles.
In a large agency coupon returns are watched and recorded on hundreds of different
lines. In a single line they are sometimes recorded on thousands of separate ads. Thus
we test everything pertaining to advertising. We answer nearly every possible question
by multitudinous traced returns.
Some things we learn in this way apply only to particular lines. But even those supply
basic principles for analogous undertakings.
Others apply to all lines. They become fundamentals for advertising in general. They are
universally applied. No wise advertiser will ever depart from those unvarying laws.
We propose in this book to deal with those fundamentals, those universal principles. To
teach only established techniques. There is that technique in advertising, as in all art,
science and mechanics. And it is, as in all lines, a basic essential.
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